Bill Spivey, 66, Kentucky Star Implicated In Scandal of 1950's

By FRANK LITSKY

Published: May 10, 1995

Bill Spivey, a 7-foot, all-America center from the University of Kentucky who was implicated but never convicted in the college basketball scandals of the 1950's, was found dead Monday in his apartment in Quepos, Costa Rica. He was 66 years old.

The police department in Quepos said he died of natural causes.

Spivey, who teamed with Frank Ramsey and Cliff Hagan to lead Kentucky to a 32-2 record and the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 1951, always denied having fixed the outcome of a game or shaving points or having any knowledge of such activities. But the National Basketball Association barred him, and his lawsuit against the professional league was settled out of court. Spivey said the league paid him $10,000.

In 1951, Frank Hogan, the Manhattan District Attorney, said that 32 players, including Spivey, had conspired with gamblers to throw or control the point spread in 86 college basketball games in 23 cities. Jack (Zip) West of Brooklyn, a gambler, pleaded guilty to a charge that he had paid Spivey and the Kentucky captain, Walt Hirsch, to shave points against St. John's in a December 1950 game in Madison Square Garden.

After Spivey had told a New York grand jury he was not guilty, he was accused of lying under oath seven times. After a 13-day trial in January 1953, the jury was deadlocked, 9-3, in favor of acquittal. A mistrial was declared, and the charges were later dropped.

Kentucky, however, barred him permanently from playing.

"The university told me to prove my innocence," he said. "I thought it was the other way around in this country. I think they made me a scapegoat. They were paying players to go to school there, and they wanted to stop the investigation from going any further."

He spent the next 16 years on the fringes of professional basketball. He played for minor league teams, including the American Basketball League team in Cleveland owned by George Steinbrenner, and for touring teams, some of which were foils for the Harlem Globetrotters.

He became involved in many businesses in Kentucky -- restaurants, real-estate development, building materials and insurance. He was Kentucky's deputy insurance commissioner, and in 1983 he ran for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.

His college career was underlined by the 1951-52 season in which he averaged 19.2 points and 16.7 rebounds a game, including 22 points and 21 rebounds in Kentucky's title game victory over Kansas State. His former wife, Audrey Spivey, said the scandal left him a broken man.

"He never got over it," she said. "Bill could not let that go. He was just devastated."

Spivey said he had one great regret.

"I think I would have had an era all my own in the N.B.A.," he said. "George Mikan was near the end of his career and Wilt Chamberlain hadn't started. I was the biggest and the best in the country. I think I would have dominated the game like those two did."

Spivey is survived by a son, Dr. Cashton B. Spivey of Isle of Palms, S.C.